The growth in acceptance of computers has resulted in increased numbers on non-programmers using computers every day. Computers are a part of life in the workplace, in the schools and in the homes and the reduced experience levels of computer users has imposed a requirement for enhanced user interfaces. Graphical user interfaces are designed to make human interactions with computers more intuitive. They convey information to users by way of a monitor or display device by various combinations of graphical items. Examples of graphical user interfaces (or GUIs) are those provided with operating systems such as IBM's OS/2.RTM..sup.1 and Microsoft's Windows 95.RTM..sup.2. These operating systems rely on a `window-based` workspace for displaying application programs, operating system information and program groupings.
 FNT .sup.1 OS/2 is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
 FNT .sup.2 Windows 95 is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Current window-based workspaces utilize vertical scroll controls having a sliding scroll control tab to move the contents of a window into view as is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 depicts a window 101 containing a list of related items having three tiers 103 utilizing the currently known window based workspace scroll controls. On the right hand side of the window 101 is a sliding scroll control 111 having an up arrow 113 which can be selected to scroll the related information upward, a down arrow 115 which can be selected to scroll the related information downward, and a bar 117 which indicates the proportion of the information currently displayed on the screen and allows the user to select the bar 117 and drag it for expedited traversal of the related information. This sliding scroll control tab adds to the overall visual clutter of the desktop and, with present implementations, consumes a fixed amount of space and remains on screen throughout the existence of the window. An additional disadvantage of the sliding scroll control tab is that its operation requires frequent pointer repositioning. It also requires a separate window frame for the scrolling mechanisms and these mechanisms (the up and down controls and the scroll slider) are physically separate such that significant movement of the pointer is required to fine-tune a scroll operation.